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Live and Let Die Appreciation

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  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Love it. It's fast and furious, gritty, funny, screams 70s in its aestethics and music (Sir Paul and George Martin did a great job. Martin even manages to capture some of the feel and funk of blaxplotation soundracks, but, hey, don't try to compare this with Shaft, Superfly, Trouble Man or Across 110th Street. Comparisons are odious), the ensemble of black actors is fantastic: the only guy I miss here is Fred Williamson. Kotto is good enough, but those two great, legendary, character actors, Julius W. Harris and Geoffrey Holder, steal all his scenes. Gloria Hendry is a charm of a lady. Sir Roger wisely tried from the first moment to establish himself as a different Bond, but still needed a bit of polish. Very good performance, though. I'm actually fond of J.W. Pepper, Quarrel Jr. and Hedison's Leiter. Jane Seymour nails his part of an innocent but capable young woman.

    AND... One of the best ending scenes of the whole series IMHO. Mr. Bond, did you think it was so easy to kill... A God? Now i want to drink a gallon of that un-cola nuts beverage, hahahahahaaaaaaa...
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,585
    50th anniversary of Live and Let Die - a personal favourite of mine. One of the first couple I owned on VHS.

    I read through all the comments here - not a lot more I can add regarding how great this film is, except I really liked Roger's haircut and wardrobe, the colourful and memorable soundtrack, and the fictional location of San Monique. There's a creepy-sounding area at the north end of the island called Snake Point - not referenced in the film, but gives off a sense of danger, much like Crab Key.

    Some of the props from this film would soon after appear in episodes of Doctor Who, such as the Morse code hairbrush and control panels from Kananga's lair.
  • CrabKeyCrabKey
    Posts: 1,993
    Best of the RM films. No substitute for SC & GL, but a good first outing, followed by a less impressive TMWTGG before deciding Bond-lite was the way go.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,041
    As I may have said before on this board (though not on this freshly revived thread from before I even joined here), I have a special love for LALD since it was the first Bond movie I saw three times in a cinema (in 1974 - "summer blockbusters" usually came out before Christmas over here since nobody felt like sitting in a theatre in summer...not craving air conditioning in our climate but rather spending the nights in beer gardens). I'm sure I saw Goldfinger before this one once (although belatedly), but LALD was an entirely more captivating thing under the circumstances. And I still think it is one of the best RM movies (beating TSWLM and maybe MR and maybe FYEO and certainly OP and definitely AVTAK and TMWTGG). And every Bond actor, by the way, is a good substitute for "GL", however good his single Bond movie turned out overall in spite of his presence, IMO.
  • ShakenNotStirredShakenNotStirred
    Posts: 1,398
    Always loved LALD as it was one of the first Bond films I owned on VHS before the DVD Special Editions. Still my favourite Bond film. Happy 50 years!
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